Open Ears 1999, downtown Kitchener. Photo by Stefan A. Rose.

To order tickets, call: 1.800.265.8977 or 519.578.1570.

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The bi-annual Open Ears festival returns for its fourth season with a new mix of concerts, electroacoustics, sound installations, symposia and workshops. This year's festival features a "remix" theme to much of the program. Highlights include:

• New York's Bang On A Can All Stars performing composer David Lang's re-interpretation of 60's avant-rockers The Velvet Underground

• German composer Hans Zender brings Franz Schubert's song-cycle 'Die Winterreise' into the 21st century (sung by Hans Peter Blochwitz with the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, conducted by Martin Fischer-Dieskau)

• New York techno-experimentalist DJ Spooky remixes Pierre Boulez's classic 'Pli Selon Pli'

Other artists include Vancouver's master of musique actuelle François Houle, the clarinet/cello/organ improv trio Sanctuary (Halifax), NUMUS and the Penderecki Quartet (Waterloo), Toronto's classic Glass Orchestra, Montreal's 'new music big band' KAPPA, and performance artists Gordon Monahan (Berlin) and Pamela Z (San Francisco).

A project of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Open Ears festival has been compared to festivals as diverse as the Winnipeg New Music Festival, Victoriaville's 'Festival Internationale de Musique Actuelle' and the St. John's Sound Symposium, but stands apart by virtue of existing somewhere between all of them. The common thread?:

Five days shared by a community of open-eared individuals, crossing over a wide range of aesthetics, all celebrating 'the art of listening'.

thanks to the following for sponsorship:

Arkay Design and Print
the Art Bar
Braun's Bicycle & Fitness
Domino's Pizza
Encore Records
KOR Gallery and Studios
Montana Publishing
Twelfth Night Music Shoppe